Nice Fruit's history has been marked by continuous progress. In 2003, the founders read an article stating that the world's ten most important universities had given up on the search for a technology able to freeze fruit without destroying its molecular structure. The company Fenoexit, with support from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), decided to accept the challenge. In 2010, they achieved their goal by means of a physical process; that is, without adding anything to the fruit or modifying its structure. The only problem was that the technology was limited to just 10 kilos per hour. Research continued, but this time with its own subsidiary, Nice Fruit.
In July 2012 they achieved the seemingly impossible: an industrial machine able to process 300 kilos per hour. A year later, a new investing group was introduced which changed the business model. Instead of selling the technology to other companies, they would build plants nearby plantations all over the world and they would be in charge of the distribution.
Nice Fruit has promised radical changes in food consumption habits. Until now, the fruit market has always worked in the same way: the produce is harvested while still green so it to arrive to consumers in perfect conditions. By doing so, "50% of the vitamins, nutrients and sugars are lost, which is why we often purchase fruit that looks good, but has a very poor flavour," explains Roger. Nice Fruit is putting an end to this procedure.
With this technology, it is possible to wait until the fruit has 90% of its nutrients, after which it is taken to the processing plant, which is why it should be located nearby the plantation. Once there, the fruit undergoes an air-based treatment, which is the basis for this new, patented technology.
Afterwards, the fruit is frozen and can be kept "immortalised" for up to three years. Within that period, if the fruit is defrosted "it will have the same flavour as a freshly harvested piece. For the first time, we have managed to obtain a frozen product that surpasses fresh fruit in terms of quality and flavour."
The advantages of Nice Fruit's system have not gone unnoticed. The company has already delivered two hundred containers of fruit for camps in the Arctic, a region with roads open only for 45 days per year. "For the first time in history, the Arctic's inhabitants will be able to eat fresh fruit every day of the year," points out Roger. Denmark has done the same for Greenland.
It is the same case with Norway's oil rigs, where ships can take weeks to arrive due to the weather conditions, or with excessively hot climates, such as the desert, "where a kilo of pineapples can cost up to 15 Euro." Nice Fruit is already selling its produce to the United Arab Emirates for half the usual price.
Source: Elmundo.es